Dēnkard III language variation and the defence of socio-religious identity in the context of Early-Islamic Iran

The aim of the present paper is to illustrate as a case study, the linguistic and stylistic peculiarities characterizing the third book of the Dēnkard, one of the most authoritative texts in Zoroastrian Pahlavi literature (9th-10th CE). The analysis will consider these features as part of a coherent system, styled to serve the dialectic strategies pursued by the Zoroastrian high priests in response to the pressures their own community was facing in the early Islamic period. In order to provide a more comprehensive overview on DkIII language distinctiveness, the research will underline the outward/inward dynamics, addressing both the relation of this theological dialectic with the surrounding socio-cultural environment and the leadingrole claims of a group within a politically subordinated community

Disseminating the Mazdayasnian Religion. An Edition of the Avesten Hērbedestān Chapter 5

This article provides a study of a chapter of a Zoroastrian treatise on religious education, a text entitled Hērbedestān. Chapter 5 survives in a single manuscript only. In spite of its poor transmission, however, on the basis of a detailed philological analysis of the Avestan language it is argued that the text provides valuable insight into the circumstances and mechanisms by which the Zoroastrian religion might have been disseminated by its religiously educated lay members. The latter could have been men, women or minor children. The Pahlavi version of this chapter is edited by Maria Macuch in the same volume